There is a fit & happier person inside everyone

Monthly Archives: January 2015

If you’ve been a regular reader of my blog you know that my mission is more than simply a personal trainer handing out exercise and healthy eating tips. The mission most dear to my heart is to rail against the body image focus that dominates our society and replace it with a focus on health by way of nurturing ourselves mind, body and soul.

Many of the fittest women on the planet wouldn’t appear on the cover of Vogue nor would they be chosen as so-called models on Parisian runways or even in apparel sections of most department store magazines. Ladies, we are not made from cookie cutters and our goal shouldn’t be trying to fit into one.

A fit woman doesn’t have a “look”, she has a way of life.

She doesn’t obsess over every morsel, she doesn’t put “good” and “bad” labels on food, she doesn’t binge and she doesn’t starve herself. She does fuel herself with food she enjoys.

She doesn’t workout to fit into a particular size or to undo what she’s consumed. She does move and sweat because it makes her feel good, it helps her sleep better, it makes her stronger, more confident and happier. In short, eating well and exercising gives her a better quality of life. Period. Nothing more, nothing less.

So, bravo to the UK and their “This Girl Can” campaign. One of the few entities getting the whole women-diet-exercise-fitness thing right. Watch their You Tube video and, if you have daughters, make sure they see it too:

Like this:

The impetus behind my Small Steps series is my frustration and sadness with witnessing people – both loved ones and our society as whole – making attempts to take control of their health in all the wrong ways. Eventually, when their efforts don’t produce the results they want, they give up, feeling like failures. That’s terribly sad to me.

My frustration is with the mindset. The false belief that making drastic changes in diet and exercise will produce quick results, that one will reach her goals in a matter of weeks, and that these results will last a lifetime. This is where elimination and deprivation diets are born. It’s also where the deconditioned believe that the only workout worth doing is one that resembles that of a professional athlete. It is a strategy that has been proven over and over again not to work.

I am frustrated also with many who claim to be in the fitness industry who feed this mindset because that’s the easiest way to make a buck. It is why the mindset won’t die – people are making millions off of it and the pool of people willing to pay doesn’t get any smaller.

This warped mindset puts the focus on body image rather than well-being. It encourages a strategy of quick, extreme fixes for the goal of temporary weight loss rather than a gradual adoption of fit habits for the goal of a healthy life. The focus, strategy and goals are wrong-headed.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it. The following are a few of the perpetuating myths of this terrible mindset that have been debunked by scientific studies, experts and the test of time:

Going all-in on a vigorous exercise plan is the only way to exercise for weight-loss & fitness: Many join a gym, sign up for trendy fitness classes or buy expensive equipment thinking they need to jump feet first into the exercise pool to kick-start their fitness. Then, because a deconditioned individual is performing workouts designed for the conditioned, extremely sore muscles, time crunches and injury all conspire to make the workouts less and less frequent until they become non existent. But, it turns out that sore or pulled muscles and lack of time aren’t the only reasons for the drop out rate. It is actually a psychological body image road block – the fear of being judged – that is the top reason new exercisers eventually quit. You can read about it here. It also stands to reason, the more challenging and vigorous the workout is, the more likely a newcomer will feel she will be judged negatively by others.

Eliminating an entire food group is the proper way to lose weight and be healthy: Of all the crazy fad diets that have circulated over the years, those promoting the elimination of entire food groups for weight loss and health are the ones that most concern me. Whether it’s eliminating all carbs, all meats, all fats, or all animal products it’s all wrong. Every one of these macronutrients provides our bodies with unique, vital nutrients we need to function properly. The only foods we all should eliminate from our diets are highly processed, chemically infused foods. Whether they originally come from plants or animals or represent a carb, fat or protein – these lab-made “foods” provide nothing of value to us. Eliminating anything else is not only unsustainable but unhealthy. Here is an example of its unsustainability and why experts say elimination diets are unhealthy.

Eating healthy means you must deny cravings and deprive yourself of treats; superhero-strength willpower is a must: All evidence shows that this approach backfires. It leads to binging and yo-yo dieting. Just as elimination diets don’t work, its sister diet, deprivation diets aren’t realistic or healthy in the long run either. Read about Weight Watchers’ latest study on deprivation diets here.

My Small Steps series combats these myths by promoting an incremental strategy to exercise with the focus on finding a variety of workouts and movement one enjoys. Eating for fitness also means adopting an incremental strategy to diet with the focus on consuming a balance of all three macronutrients sourced from a wide variety of minimally processed plant and animal foods in the correct portions. In both cases the final goal is overall health.

If you are in need of a fitness reboot, steer clear of the extreme strategies that can only lead to frustration and discouragement. Learn more about my Small Stepsseries and see what we’re working on in January. And then follow along with us throughout the year on the road to a fit and happier state of mind.

Fit&Happier Workout of the Month defined: These are 30 minute general fitness workouts designed to offer a complete and balanced approach to strength and cardiovascular training in the most efficient way possible. Strength training workouts will each feature a different form of resistance, or load, so that you can choose the type of resistance based on equipment availability and your preference. These will offer full-body strength training and muscle toning with base exercises appropriate for beginners and progressions for those more experienced in strength training. Cardio workouts are designed to get the most calorie burn possible in the time allotted. Combo workouts combine strength and cardio training into one, efficient, full-body, calorie-burning workout. All workouts conclude with flexibility training as no workout is complete without it. Click on the exercises to link to step-by-step written and video instructions provided by ACE Fitness.

Body Weight Resistance Strength & Flexibility Training

Concept: Use your own body weight as resistance to strengthen, tone and stretch the major muscle groups of the body: upper arms, shoulders, core (back and abdominals), hips and legs. Base exercises are for those new to strength training. Progressions are offered for those with more experience with these exercises. Be sure you can perform the base exercise, and each subsequent progression, with excellent form for the maximum recommended repetition amount before progressing to the next level. I recommend using a cushioned, no-slip surface to perform this workout, such as an exercise mat or open area of wall-to-wall carpeting. Be sure to have enough unobstructed space around you to allow for full range of motion of arms and legs. Perform this workout 1-3 times per week, allowing at least 48 hours before repeating this workout.

Warm-Up: 2-5 minutes of high knee marching, swinging opposing arms to shoulder height as you lift knees to hip height or any other form of moderate cardio movement you choose. The goal is to raise your heart-rate slightly before working your muscles.

Strength Workout: Perform the following exercise circuit in succession with no rest between exercises

After performing each exercise once, rest for 1-2 minutes and repeat the circuit (supermans through ab crunches) for a second set of each exercise. After performing the circuit twice, perform the flexibility workout.

Flexibility Workout: Hold each stretch for 20-30 seconds and breathe deeply throughout the stretches.

It’s time to start a new year of my Small Steps series. You can read about the philosophy and strategies of the series here.

If you started the series mid-way through the year last year, continue to build upon your fitness journey throughout the early months of this year.

If you completed the entire series last year, congratulations! You are well on your way to a lifestyle that supports strength, health, balance, stamina, energy and overall feelings of well being. Use the Small Steps posts at the start of each month to serve as gentle reminders of the keys to fitness and recommit to those healthy habits, particularly the ones that are most challenging for you.

If you’re new to Small Steps, welcome! Join in and learn the path to a fit and happier life.

January’s Small Step: Portion Control

Have unlimited fruits and vegetables but proteins, grains/starches and fats (including those that may go on or with fruits and vegetables) need to be portioned out. At meals, proteins and grains should each take up only 1/4 of your plate leaving the other half for produce. Cereals, dressings, dairy, nuts, nut butters, condiments, alcohol and anything else that’s poured or scooped out of a container should be measured to the recommended serving size. At first, don’t guesstimate – actually measure. This will take a little bit of time investment on the front end. But, over time, you’ll know exactly how much cereal and milk to pour into your bowl or wine to pour into your goblet to constitute the appropriate serving size. Although, it’s not a bad idea to audit yourself every once in a while – it’s human nature to cheat up over time.

Portion control isn’t just for meals. Practice it with snacks and, most especially, treats. Again, measure out portions and don’t eat directly out of the container. We have a tendency to binge on high calorie foods because we rationalize that we’re blowing the diet, concluding we’ve already failed – doomed whether we eat two cookies or half the box. The truth is a treat here or there won’t erase all the good you’ve done but a whole container could. The better way to look at it is to accept that treats are a part of your diet, not apart from it. They should be consumed, enjoyed and savored in the correct portions. In reality, if you allow yourself small indulgences when you crave them, you actually begin to crave them less.

More easy tips to help you with portion control:

Always have a water bottle with you. Often, we think we’re hungry when we’re actually just dehydrated. Drinking more water helps cut down on over-snacking.

Use a smaller plate, it gives you the visual illusion that you’re eating more than you actually are.

Eat sitting at a table with no distractions (no TV, smartphone, book).

Eat slowly and make a point of tasting and enjoying your food.

After portioning out meals at home, place vegetable/fruit sides on the table family-style while leaving remaining meat and starches away from the table.

When dining out, eat half your entrée and bring the rest home for a 2nd meal.

Join the movement and share your success stories, tips and questions along the way. We’ll all benefit from shared experiences and knowledge.

Author’s Note: I am an exercise professional, not a nutrition professional. My diet recommendations are based on the most current science-backed information provided by nutrition professionals in the fitness industry. Mine are general recommendations that are in line with the guidelines published by the US Dept of Health and Human Services for apparently healthy individuals. If you have a health condition that requires dietary restrictions, I recommend consulting a medical doctor or registered dietician before making any changes to your diet. Always consult your physician before beginning any new exercise program.